Abe’s Version of History Doesn’t Sit Well With Chinese

Historians and columnists have made
comparisons between Britain and a rising Germany in 1914 and the current
tensions between Japan and China; a hot topic at the start of the
centenary year of World War I.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, in
his appearance Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, raised the bar when he agreed with the thesis, saying that
he saw a “similar situation” between now and then.

During a discussion with journalists,
Mr. Abe said that the strong trade relations between Germany and
Britain in 1914 were not unlike the economic interdependence today
between Japan and China.

In 1914, economic self-interest failed
to put a brake on the strategic rivalry that led to the outbreak of war,
Mr. Abe said. He criticized the annual double-digit growth in China’s
defense budget, calling it a source of instability in the Pacific
region, an implicit comparison to Germany’s rapid build-up of arms
before World War I....